Energy retail markets have been open to competition in the UK and Australia for a number of years. Price de-regulation is also a feature in the UK and in some Australian states. Many customers have benefitted from competition in energy retail markets but there have also been some concerns, particularly about vulnerable customers and “sticky customers” – those who do not switch. Over a number of years the UK regulator has developed proposals to improve the way the market works for customers. This presentation will explore some of the UK developments and the differences and similarities between the UK and Australia, particularly in terms of the impacts on vulnerable customers.

Dr Gill Owen is Research Program Leader (Consumers and Energy Markets) at Monash Sustainability Institute. She is also a member of the Australian Energy Regulator’s Consumer Challenge Panel. Gill moved to Australia in August 2012 and has published extensively on energy efficiency, smart meters, electricity demand response and fuel poverty. Until her departure from the UK Gill was also: a Non-Executive Director of the England and Wales water regulator Ofwat; a member of Ofgem’s (Great Britain energy regulator) Consumer Challenge Group for the Distribution and Transmission Price Reviews; a member of the UK Government’s Smart Meters Consumer Advisory Group; Vice Chair of the UK Government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group. She was a Commissioner of the UK’s Competition Commission for ten years until 2002 and was also previously a non-executive board member of Ofgem.

Thursday 29 August at 12noon-1pm, at the Brotherhood, 67 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in Father Tucker’s Room

– This one-day Forum will be hosted by the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences in partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence. The Forum aims to bridge the divide between welfare and social policy, and development practice through the prism of ‘inclusive growth’.

Drawing upon the expertise of leading international policymakers and academics in the field, the Forum will explore the following salient themes:

Critiquing the theoretical underpinning of growth and development

Examining welfare state perspectives on inclusive growth and social/economic development

Presenting lessons learned and best practices from developing and developed economies

These themes will be explored at four sessions during the one-day Forum titled:

Professor Jon Barnett, Resource Management and Geography, University of Melbourne

As knowledge and modeling of the risks of sea-level rise builds momentum so too does the need to begin processes to adapt to avoid these risks. This seminar will be an informal discussion of an ongoing ARC Linkage Project in Gippsland East which aims to understand the equity dimensions of climate change for small coastal communities. Amongst the research locales are Lakes Entrance, Port Albert, Seaspray, Manns Beach and McLoughlins Beach. We will present findings about policy-makers’ views of the ‘problem’ in this area, and emerging insights about the nature of social justice with respect to adaptation to sea-level rise.

Jon Barnett is a Professor in the Department of Resource Management and Geography at Melbourne University. He is a political geographer whose research investigates the impacts of and responses to climate change on social systems, with a focus on risks to human insecurity, hunger, violent conflict, and water stress. He has done extensive field-work in the South Pacific, China, and East Timor. Jon is convenor of the national research network on the social, economic and institutional dimensions of climate change, which is part of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, and is a Lead Author for the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Jon is co-lead investigator on this project, along with Professor Ruth Fincher from the Geography program at the University of Melbourne, and Dr Anna Hurlimann, who is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at Melbourne University.

More than one million Australians experience deep social exclusion.

Social exclusion occurs when someone experiences multiple, overlapping problems, such as unemployment, poor health and inadequate education, which stop them fully participating in society. Tackling social exclusion helps make Australia a better place to live for everyone.

The social exclusion monitor is a new approach to measuring social exclusion in Australia. Developed by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR), it uses the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey of 13,000 people. The monitor finds that more than one million Australians deal with deep social exclusion. This means that they experience at least four different sorts of disadvantage in their lives, such as being on a low income, having little work experience, not being involved in community clubs or associations and not being socially active. You can use the monitor to better understand who is missing out in Australia and to gauge the effectiveness of government social policy.

Over 23 years of working with the urban poor in India, the non-government organisation Asha has developed a community development model that emphasises pro-poor growth and the inclusion of slum dwellers in the rest of society. Join Dr Kiran Martin, Director of Asha, and Visiting Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, at this special lunchtime seminar.

Around one third of inhabitants of the world’s cities – nearly one billion people – live in urban slums. Over 3 million people in India’s capital New Delhi, stay in slum areas. India’s slum populations are growing at much higher rates than urban populations overall, a trend mirrored across the developing world. This state of affairs is unsustainable for India and the world. People in slums display poor developmental indicators across the board, from poor health to low literacy rates to lack of access to financial services. Over 23 years of working with the urban poor, the NGO Asha has developed an urban community development model that emphasises pro-poor growth and the inclusion of slum dwellers in the rest of society. Having seen success in poverty alleviation through programmes in health, education, empowerment, financial inclusion and environmental improvement, this seminar focuses on how Asha has achieved results in heterogeneous slum communities through the practical application of such universal values as equality, individual dignity and social justice.

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, hosts a monthly series of “Conversations” at Federation Square in Melbourne. They are free, public events with topics and themes “on the public mind”.

Dr Freier will be joined by the PM’s adviser on Climate Change and author of the 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review, Professor Ross Garnaut, for a discussion on exploring the question â€˜Does Australia have a sustainable future?’ The conversation is expected to be challenging and controversial as it considers the difficult energy choices which lie before us.

Christian nuclear energy advocate and environmentalist, Ian Hore-Lacy, will also join the archbishop and Professor Garnaut for the conversation. Mr Hore-Lacy believes Christians are focusing on the wrong thing: “Christians need to stop talking about the environment and properly address the broader and more significant reality of God’s creation.” He believes â€˜populist bandwagons’ are distracting attention from the real solutions.

The Brotherhood of Saint Laurence (BSL) is an independent organisation with strong Anglican and community links that was established during the Great Depression to end social injustice and fight for an Australia free of poverty.

The Brotherhood’s mission is to deliver services, develop policy and support social change to help empower people, build community capacity as part of the community by creating and developing enterprise projects and ventures as catalysts for individual and community transformation.

BSL is currently conducting a feasibility study as part of its Community Enterprise Development Initiative into establishing a Wholesale Food Security Community Enterprise (also called “Food PAD”) to source produce for redistribution for local community organizations. This project aims to support the development of food related community enterprises to address issues of food insecurity and provide a pathway for social engagement and skill building while benefiting the environment.

The project intends on establishing and facilitating new sets of relationships between producers and consumers, placing the focus foremost on community benefits, whilst supporting the creation of sustainable new community initiatives. BSL, the Victorian Government and other stakeholders will provide the catalyst for the project while the impetus and ownership of the community enterprise will rest with community organizations. BSL is also supporting the development of two other food projects, the Western and Northern Metro Distribution Systems, in addition to the Food PAD project.

“The Phoenix Fridge Project is a world-first – an innovative approach to tackling the inefficiency of household fridges which are major contributors to ozone depletion, climate change, waste disposal and landfill limitations. Phoenix Fridges takes fridges donated from all across Melbourne and recycles, repairs, and retrofits them to make them more energy efficient. The project also achieves great outcomes for the community by providing training and employment for people who are unemployed.”

And we were very happy to have Jeff Moon, General Manager of Social Enterprises, Brotherhood of St Laurence, speak at the recent Sustainable Cities Round Table on Waste Not Want Not talk about this project! Check out the video of his presentation below or visit the websites hyperlinked above.